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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29468670">Thaw</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistantStorm/pseuds/DistantStorm'>DistantStorm</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Revenant [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Hypothermia, M/M, Pre-Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:08:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29468670</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistantStorm/pseuds/DistantStorm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Lieutenant Commander?" Thrawn answers, and it's that tone that says the admiral is lost in his thoughts, that he's hearing but not listening.</p><p>But that's fine, Eli decides. He'll come around eventually. It's not that important.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo &amp; Eli Vanto, Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Eli Vanto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Revenant [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2173008</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>76</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Thaw</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>These are a collection of stories within the same universe, marking progression through Imperial Space, the Ascendancy and beyond.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's dark and the temperature is dropping.</p><p>Try as he might, Eli cannot escape the shivers that rack his body. Across the room, unreadable as ever, Thrawn catalogs his body's response without a word. The admiral, as usual, remains unphased. </p><p>Eli has collected little things about the man over the years, made tiny notations in the data to help him understand his commanding officer better. Thrawn is an eloquent speaker, but it's better to put stock in his actions. He is dreadfully petty and just as petulant at times, the selfish hallmarks of a child with at least one older sibling. He does not mind heat, but he thrives in the cold, suggesting that he's from a planet or system that's mostly frozen over.</p><p>He doesn't plan on sharing his notes, not even with the man himself, but little by little, he thinks he might someday understand him.</p><p>"I did not anticipate that our forces would take this long," Thrawn says, which isn't an apology to Eli for making him freeze his ass off, but it's as close to it as the Chiss will get.</p><p>So, graciously, Eli nods and, crossing his arms over his chest, hopes fervently that Thrawn comes up with a revised idea that doesn't involve waiting for rescue in this underground ice pit like its predecessor.</p><p>He eventually wonders if this is how those lizards from the sculpts in Thrawn's office would handle the cold. It's a ridiculous thought. Lizards from Eli's homeworld shut down, burrowing as best they can to keep warm, becoming sleepy and slow without some source of heat. It's only happened once in Eli's life, but the temperature in their cell is at least twice as cold as Lysatra has ever been. He's been able to see his breath for a while now, and his nose feels sharp every time he breathes deep. He tucks his chin into his collar and crosses his arms, shoving his gloved hands under the opposite armpit.</p><p>"Thrawn," He says at some point, sans honorific, voice sounding odd, like the slurry of a drawl his grandfather had, but slower, like the frosty cogs refusing to turn in his brain, "I don't think I can wait much longer." He doesn't entirely remember why they're waiting, or why he's pressed in on himself so tightly. But he is, and they are. He can't feel his feet. Or his nose. That's weird.</p><p>"Lieutenant Commander?" Thrawn answers, and it's that tone that says the admiral is lost in his thoughts, that he's hearing but not listening.</p><p>But that's fine, Eli decides. He'll come around eventually. It's not that important.</p><p>"Nevermind."</p><p>-/</p><p>In hindsight, Thrawn should have recognized the signs. Similarly, he should have acted before Vanto was blue-lipped and unresponsive, back when the drawl he so often tried to hide had nearly become too thick to understand. But Thrawn had been thinking. Had been planning ahead. The next move, the next encounter, the next engagement. </p><p>As he too frequently did, Eli Vanto suffered the consequences.</p><p>-/</p><p>Eli remembers waking up and feeling too hot, remembers attempting to struggle away from… whatever it was covering him. Remembers someone holding him down almost gently—too gently—so he gets his arm free and jabs them.</p><p>He almost remembers opening his eyes, but the unrestrained surprise on the red ones looking down at him must be a hallucination. </p><p>-/</p><p>"I have to say, sir," Commander Faro says, clearly amused, "You had it coming."</p><p>Thrawn glares at her, his hand probing the nearly invisible bruise on his cheek while the medics work on his aide. With any other, the look on his face would render them silent. His ship's captain, however, cares very little for his mood when given the option to express her opinion.</p><p>Frostbite, hypothermia, both diagnoses are hardly surprising given the circumstances. The process of reheating the body, however, is tentative. It must be done with great care, and it cannot be done in bacta.</p><p>Something shrill rings insistently, an alert chime that has both human assistants and medical droids scurrying closer. They kick both Faro and Thrawn clear out of the room, voices carrying about rhythms that suggest the damage Thrawn has inflicted may last a bit longer than it takes for them to warm Vanto back to an appropriate temperature.</p><p>-/</p><p>All in all, the medical droid declares him significantly more sturdy than he appears. It lets him off with a warning not to do anything strenuous for at least the next week, schedules him both a three-day follow up and a return to duty physical, and releases him into his own care with a detached bleat of sound. </p><p>Eli is grateful, if for no other reason than that he can trudge back to his own bunk for at least a full cycle of shut-eye. He feels awful. His chest hurts like someone was pushing on it, and his fingers and toes tingle with bacta-regenerated skin. Really, he's exhausted.</p><p>His world is narrowed to that: the promise of a dark room and undisturbed rest. It's luck alone that it's turnover to aurek shift when he's making the trek back and anyone who would monopolize his time is on the bridge. He makes it to his quarters blessedly undisturbed, stands in the sonic 'fresher long enough to feel woozy but clean, and flops face down onto the bed in fatigues.</p><p>When he sleeps, it's the sleep of the (almost) dead. He does not dream.</p><p>When he wakes, there is an additional blanket over him and a mug of still-steaming tea on the low table beside his bunk. </p><p>Thrawn, he knows, has likely just come and gone. Guilt, Eli recognizes, but he cannot think about it for long. The weight of an additional blanket is too alluring. It is not one from the quartermaster, but instead one from Thrawn's own quarters, and Eli can smell him. </p><p>It shouldn't bring comfort, Thrawn is like quiet chaos manifested in a physical body, but it does.</p><p>He pulls the blankets closer, breathing deep. The tea will keep for now.</p>
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